An Election Entertainment: Four Prints of an Election, Plate 1

Inspired by the Oxfordshire election of 1754, Hogarth’s series skewers the ploys of politicians to buy popular support. Two Whig candidates are seated at the far left and must suffer the overly fond attentions of their party regulars, who have indulged themselves in food and drink at the candidates’ expense. Campaign ribbons and petty bribes, such as pipes and tobacco, are being readied for the campaign. The party secretary calculates “Sure” and “Doubtful” votes as he is struck by a brick tossed through the window by the opposition party parading outside.

William George Sullivan; given to the John Herron Art Institute, now the Indianapolis Museum of Art, in 1930.

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